


Secret Between Sisters

by lilgulie5



Series: A Time for Targaryens [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Cheating, F/M, Forbidden Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Cheating, Secret Lovers, Secret Relationship, Taboo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 18:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16686913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilgulie5/pseuds/lilgulie5
Summary: A "secret chapter" set after Chapter Twelve of "You're the Right Kind of Madness". Rhaenys finds out the hard way that secrets are difficult to keep, especially from those closest to us.





	Secret Between Sisters

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my second "Secret Chapter" in the A Time for Targaryen series. This is set after chapter twelve of You're the Right Kind of Madness. So everyone now knows that Rhaenys is staying in King's Landing, Sam is going back to Horn Hill, and Rhaenys is pregnant. 
> 
> Thanks to Sharon (make of magnificent moodboards!), Mimi, and Shawn for letting me constantly pester them with endless questions and ideas for these fics.

 

Alys lifted her hand to knock on the door to her sister’s chambers- her own former chambers- when she heard voices from within. The hour was late and she had not expected to hear anyone talking, let alone what sounded like two voices. Dropping her hand, she pressed her ear closer to the door, attempting to decipher the words coming from within.

“What took you so long?” she heard her sister say. “Rickon’s been asleep for hours and I’ve been waiting for you.”

 _Waiting for who?_ Alys wondered.

“Apologies, my princess. How shall I make it up to you.”

Alys blanched. She knew that voice. It was familiar to her, even if she could not quite place it.

“You know exactly how, Luc. Let me help you with your armor.”

A wave a nausea swept over Alys as she clapped her hand over her mouth. Her feet felt leaden as she was unable to move them away from the door. She knew she should knock on the door, or simply walk in unannounced as if she had not just heard the exchange of words from inside between her sister and her parent’s devoted Queensguard.

 _Apparently not only devoted to my parents_ …

Finding her bearings again she nearly stumbled away from the door and back to her own chambers down the corridor as quickly as she could move while so great with child. Thankfully, her husband was not there yet. Alys poured herself a glass of sweet red wine, her hand shaking so badly that she spilled a little onto the tray. After taking a few small sips she sank into a chair and began to process what she had heard.

_Rhaenys and Luc. The Lady of Horn Hill and the Queensguard. Your sister and one of her oldest friends. Her first love..._

Rhaenys’s words echoed in her mind as she recalled the conversation they had shared months ago when her older sister came to King’s Landing at the behest of their mother. _Is it so difficult to believe?_ Rhaenys had said. _It was easy to love him, to imagine that he could love me, too. We had other destinies ahead of us, but fate gave us a beautiful summer. I don’t regret it, not one bit. I don’t think he does either._

Had she been false with Alys when she told her all of that was in the past? Or was this a new development? Alys could not be sure, nor did she know whether or not to broach the subject with Rhaenys. She needed to know, perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. Maybe her ears deceived her.

The very next night she intended to find out. She waited until it was nearly the very same hour she had gone the previous night and boldly knocked on the door, her hand hitting the wood more strongly than usual. Rhaenys opened the door a crack moments later, peeking around the edge to see who had been knocking.

“Oh,” she said, sounding a bit surprised. “It’s you.”

“Oh,” Alys replied, perfectly mimicking her sister’s voice. “It’s me. Who else would you be expecting?”

“No one...it’s just that it’s late. Come in.”

Alys stepped inside as Rhaenys opened the door up to her, half disappointed that she did not catch Luc in her chambers again. She had half a mind to check the wardrobe and behind the curtains, but she knew that would be foolish. She and Rhaenys did not keep secrets from one another, not usually.

“What brings you here?” Rhaenys asked, drawing her robe more tightly around herself. “You should probably be resting.”

“I couldn’t sleep. Indigestion. I actually came by last night,” Alys said, wasting no time. “But it seems you were otherwise...occupied.”

“I…”

“Rhae, you can tell me anything. You know that, right?”

“You’ll think I’m an awful person.”

“I can promise you that I won’t. You’re my sister, how could I?”

“You know who was here, don’t you?” Rhae asked as she led Alys over to the couch in her outer chamber and sat down.

Alys nodded. “I heard you say his name. It sounded like he had arrived just before me. That’s all I heard.”

“I don’t know what to do. I vacillate between being filled with such shame and feeling like what I’m doing is right.”

“But Sam…”

“You’ll think me a liar, but I love him. I do. But I also love Luc. I don’t think I ever stopped.”

“I don’t understand. You told me that it was in the past. That Sam was your future.”

“I thought it _was_ in my past. Sam _is_ my future. The bond I share with Luc is precious to me, but neither of us have any preconceived notions. I will never ask him to leave the Queensguard. He will never ask me to leave Sam.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Enjoying the time we do have with one another in any way we can. Don’t you think that Aegon loved both of his wives? Don’t you think it’s possible?”

Alys was not sure about that. History told them that for every night he spent with Visenya, he spent ten nights with Rhaenys, but it was possible he loved her in a different way. She had a hard time believing that the most powerful conqueror Westeros had ever known would have married a sister merely out of obligation. When it came to loving two people, Alys could not speak to that. The only man she had ever loved, or ever would love, was Ned, but she knew from the way her sister had told about the summer she spent with Luc that she loved him dearly.

“It’s possible,” she conceded.

“I know you think this is wrong.”

“I don’t know what to think. How long has this been going on? Ever since before you were married.”

“No!” Rhaenys replied, aghast that her sister would suggest such a thing. “When I told you that Luc was in my past I thought in all honesty that he was. But then at Harrenhal we were together…”

“At Harrenhal?”

“During the wedding feast I slipped away to check on Rickon and it just happened.”

The wedding was just over two months past now. Rhaenys had been in King’s Landing without Sam for the better part of two months. All the while Alys thought her sister’s aloofness had been because she missed her husband, when in reality it was because she was keeping a secret from her.

“The baby…” Alys whispered, realization sweeping over her.

“There’s a good chance, more than a good chance really, that this child is Luc’s,” Rhaenys confirmed.

“But you’re not sure.”

“Don’t look at me like that, Alys. Please.”

“Does Luc know?”

“No.”

“Does Sam know?”

“I told you that I told him I was with child before he left. I thought it might soften the blow of the separation. He has no reason to think it’s not his. We’ve been together as well.”

“So it could be his child.”

“It could be,” Rhaenys nodded, biting her lip. “But it’s not as if we have slept apart for three years since Rickon was born. We’ve _tried_ to conceive again. I was with Luc and then I realized I had not bled not long after.”

“Seven Hells.”

“I’m not sorry though. I might be scared, but I’m not sorry. Do you know how jealous I was of you when you told me you were pregnant?”

“Jealous?” Alys asked. “Of me?”

“Yes. Here I had been wanting another child, longing for more children, trying in vain to have a baby, and you so effortlessly got with child. It seemed unfair. You were scared and not yet wed and I just thought of how cruel the gods must be to make you go through that when I would have been so glad to have another child.”

“I never knew you felt that way.”

“How could I tell you that?” Rhaenys asked, tears welling up in her eyes. “You told me that your child was not the result of some folly. Well neither is mine. I knew when Luc and I were together that it was a possibility. I should be ashamed to say that I even hoped it might, but I’m not.”

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know what I thought I would find out when I came here tonight, but I’m sorry if you feel like I’ve judged you for it. Heavens knows I’m in no position to judge.”

“My hesitation for staying in King’s Landing was because I knew if I was around Luc I wouldn’t be able to stay away from him. I wanted to be a good wife, a true wife. I know Sam deserves that much. But I also feel that life is short and maybe the gods have given me a capacity to love and be loved.”

“You need to tell Luc.”

“And I will. It’s still early yet. Alys?”

“Yes?”

“You will keep this between us, won’t you?”

 _Keep this between us..._ The words echoed through Alys’s head. What her sister really meant was, _Will you keep this from our brothers?_ It had not occurred to Alys that she would be asked to keep this a secret from her husband.

“Rhae I don’t know…”

“A favor for a favor,” Rhaenys said, reaching for her hand. “I kept your secret from Mother and Father and now I ask you to keep mine.”

“A favor for a favor,” Alys agreed with great reluctance, placing a hand on top of her sister’s. “But if Ned should _ever_ ask me…”

“Why would he ask you?”

“ _If he does_. I will tell him the truth. I won’t lie to him about it if he asks me.”

“Very well. Thank you, Alys.”

“What are sisters for?”

Luc came to her again that night and as she lay wrapped in his arms, willing the sun not to rise, she wondered if she had been right to ask Alys to keep her secret. She had no doubt that Alys would. There was no one she trusted more in the world than her younger sister. Growing up, Rhaenys had been surrounded by two brothers and so when her mother was brought to her childbed and delivered a girl, the four-year-old Rhaenys could not contain her excitement. Many siblings would have found the age gap to be annoying, but Rhaenys did not. Her little sister was smart, smarter than her brothers Rhae had insisted to their mother, and Alys was a willing participant in anything her older sister wanted to do. What was more, she truly felt like Alys understood her now.

Sometimes, Rhaenys allowed herself to be lulled to sleep after making love to Luc, but that was a dangerous game. Unlike Alys who had Jeyne to keep her secrets, Rhae did not trust the servants, not with this secret. The greedier their hands, the looser their lips. She would take no chances. When she did sleep on the nights Luc stayed longer than he should she did so fitfully. Sometimes she would have a nightmare which always involved Sam finding out in some way. Other times she would dream of living with Luc and their child in a small house on the banks of the Blackwater. Both dreams often left her with a sense of dread when she awoke.

 _Did Luc dream_? she wondered. He never seemed to look anything but peaceful when he slept and yet at the smallest stirring he would wake. Perhaps that was why he made such a good soldier, he could always anticipate her needs even before she uttered them. She never needed to tell him what she wanted. Oftentimes, words were simply superfluous. He would simply rise from the bed and quietly dress, allowing her to follow him with her eyes as he moved about the room. He never said goodbye, would never ask when he might see her again for fear that it might spoil the current moment. Instead, Luc would merely sit on the edge of the bed nearest to her, bend low and kiss her soundly before taking his leave.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!


End file.
